#381 - Hard Maths Puzzle

A high school has a strange principal. On the first day, he has his students perform an odd opening day ceremony:

There are one thousand lockers and one thousand students in the school. The principal asks the first student to go to every locker and open it. Then he has the second student go to every second locker and close it. The third goes to every third locker and, if it is closed, he opens it, and if it is open, he closes it. The fourth student does this to every fourth locker, and so on. After the process is completed with the thousandth student, how many lockers are open?

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The only lockers that remain open are perfect squares (1, 4, 9, 16, etc) because they are the only numbers divisible by an odd number of whole numbers; every factor other than the number's square root is paired up with another. Thus, these lockers will be 'changed' an odd number of times, which means they will be left open. All the other numbers are divisible by an even number of factors and will consequently end up closed.

So the number of open lockers is the number of perfect squares less than or equal to one thousand. These numbers are one squared, two squared, three squared, four squared, and so on, up to thirty one squared. (Thirty two squared is greater than one thousand, and therefore out of range.) So the answer is thirty one.

#382 - Monk Mathamatical Puzzle

A monk has a very specific ritual for climbing up the steps to the temple. First he climbs up to the middle step and meditates for 1 minute. Then he climbs up 8 steps and faces east until he hears a bird singing. Then he walks down 12 steps and picks up a pebble. He takes one step up and tosses the pebble over his left shoulder. Now, he walks up the remaining steps three at a time which only takes him 9 paces. How many steps are there?

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There are 49 steps.

He hears the bird singing on step 33. He picks up the pebble on the 21st step and tosses it on the 22nd step. The remaining 27 steps are taken three at a time which is 9 pac

#383 - Hard Math Riddle

Take 9 from 6, 10 from 9, 50 from 40 and leave 6.

How Come ??

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SIX - 9 (IX) = S
9 (IX) - 10 (X) = I
40 (XL) - 50 (L) = X
===>SIX

#384 - Weighing Balance Puzzle

You can place weights on both side of weighing balance and you need to measure all weights between 1 and 1000. For example if you have weights 1 and 3,now you can measure 1,3 and 4 like earlier case, and also you can measure 2,by placing 3 on one side and 1 on the side which contain the substance to be weighed. So question again is how many minimum weights and of what denominations you need to measure all weights from 1kg to 1000kg.

Weighing Balance Puzzle
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For this answer is 3^0, 3^1, 3^2... That is 1,3,9,27,81,243 and 729.

#385 - Simple Simple Google Interview Puzzle

The puzzle is if the shopkeeper can only place the weights in one side of the common balance. For example if shopkeeper has weights 1 and 3 then he can measure 1, 3 and 4 only. Now the question is how many minimum weights and names the weights you will need to measure all weights from 1 to 1000. This is a fairly simple problem and very easy to prove also.  Answer for this puzzle is given below.

Simple Simple Google Interview Puzzle
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This is simply the numbers 2^0,2^1,2^2 ... that is 1,2,4,8,16... So for making 1000 kg we need up to 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and 512

#386 - Distance Puzzle

Two friends decide to get together; so they start riding bikes towards each other. They plan to meet halfway. Each is riding at 6 MPH. They live 36 miles apart. One of them has a pet carrier pigeon and it starts flying the instant the friends start traveling. The pigeon flies back and forth at 18 MPH between the 2 friends until the friends meet.

How many miles does the pigeon travel?

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54
It takes 3 hours for the friends to meet; so the pigeon flies for 3 hours at 18 MPH = 54 miles

#387 - Maths Teaser

Try to find out a multi-digit number that if multiplied by the number 9 or any of its multiplications products (18, 27, 36, 45,..) will result in the multiplication factor repeated (n) number of times

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The number is: 12345679
12345679 * 9 = 111111111
12345679 * 18 = 222222222
12345679 * 27 = 333333333
And so on...

#388 - Train Puzzle

Charles walks over a railway-bridge. At the moment that he is just ten meters away from the middle of the bridge, he hears a train coming from behind. At that moment, the train, which travels at a speed of 90 km/h, is exactly as far away from the bridge as the bridge measures in length. Without hesitation, Charles rushes straight towards the train to get off the bridge. In this way, he misses the train by just four meters! If Charles would, however, have rushed exactly as fast in the other direction, the train would have hit him eight meters before the end of the bridge.

What is the length of the railway-bridge?

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Let the length of the bridge be x meters.
Running towards the train, Charles covers 0.5x-10 meters in the time that the train travels x-4 meters. Running away from the train, Charles covers 0.5x+2 meters in the time that the train travels 2x-8 meters.

Because their speeds are constant, the following holds:

(0.5x-10) / (x-4) = (0.5x+2) / (2x-8)
which can be rewritten to
0.5x2 - 24x + 88 = 0
Using the abc formula we find that x=44, so the railway-bridge has a length of 44 meters.

#389 - Gold Bar Fewest Cut Puzzle

A worker is to perform work for you for seven straight days. In return for his work, you will pay him 1/7th of a bar of gold per day. The worker requires a daily payment of 1/7th of the bar of gold. What and where are the fewest number of cuts to the bar of gold that will allow you to pay him 1/7th each day?

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Just 2
Day One: You make your first cut at the 1/7th mark and give that to the worker.
Day Two: You cut 2/7ths and pay that to the worker and receive the original 1/7th in change.
Day three: You give the worker the 1/7th you received as change on the previous day.
Day four: You give the worker 4/7ths and he returns his 1/7th cut and his 2/7th cut as change.
Day Five: You give the worker back the 1/7th cut of gold.
Day Six: You give the worker the 2/7th cut and receive the 1/7th cut back in change.
Day Seven: You pay the worker his final 1/7th.

#390 - CAT Exam Puzzle

5+3+2 = 151022
9+2+4 = 183652
8+6+3 = 482466
5+4+5 = 202541
THEN ;
7+2+5 =

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7*2 , 7*5 , 7*2 + 7*5 -2